(CNN) – Despite primary struggles with evangelical voters evidenced by losses in southern Bible Belt states, Mitt Romney has a large lead over President Barack Obama among white evangelical voters, a poll released Thursday showed.

The Public Religion Research Institute poll showed Obama carrying Catholic and mainline Protestant voters, as well as voters who did not identify a particular denomination.- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

Romney's lead among white evangelicals was nearly 50 percentage points, as 68% chose him and 19% chose Obama in the survey.

In several Bible Belt primary states, Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stumbled among evangelical voters, who split their support for Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, both Catholics. Santorum was known for the central place social issues took on his platform and in his campaign pitches.

Over half of those surveyed said it was not "important for a presidential candidate to share their religious beliefs," but two in three white evangelical voters said shared beliefs were important or very important.

Although voters overall downplay the importance of religion in their candidate choices, the survey's authors pointed to a "strong correlation between similarity of candidates' religious beliefs and voting preference." Each candidate leads among voters who believe the other candidate's religious views are different from her own.

An exception to that is among the white evangelicals surveyed: 67% of those who said that Romney's Mormon faith is different from their own still supported him over Obama.

Obama's Wednesday announcement that he supports same-sex marriage could deepen the evangelical disapproval of Obama, who had originally expressed opposition to marriage, but supported same-sex unions. "I was sensitive to the fact that - for a lot of people - that the word marriage is something that provokes very powerful traditions and religious beliefs," he said in the Wednesday announcement.

The poll was completed prior to Obama's announcement, but included interviews conducted on the day when Vice President Joe Biden said he favored same-sex marriage.

Obama's advantage among Catholic and Protestant voters was less pronounced than Romney's lead among evangelical voters. Obama carried Catholics 46% to 39% and mainline Protestants 50% to 37%, the survey said.

It showed him having a larger advantage among those who did not identify with a denomination, by a 57% to 22% margin.

The PRRI pollster, Robert Jones, said the evangelical vote may be out of Obama's reach.

“The evangelical community has been tough for Democrats for recent history," he said. "They supported McCain, they supported Bush – they are heavily Republican leaning. It is a tough rode for any democratic candidate.”

As the GOP transitioned from primary to general election focus, some social conservatives and evangelical leaders moved to embrace Romney and dispel questions about his faith, such as prominent pastor Joel Osteen, who told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in April, "Mormonism is a little different, but I still see them as brothers in Christ."

The endorsement of former rival Republican candidates Santorum and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann may also help Romney to shore up the demographic.

Others, like Southern Baptist Convention public policy chief Richard Land, have pointed to Romney's faith as a liability in the general election.

But despite these discussions of the candidates' faith, the survey shows voters' knowledge of Obama and Romney's religion is largely unchanged since an October poll. Just over a third of voters identify Obama as a Protestant, and 51% of voters identify Romney as Mormon.

The survey was conducted with 1,006 people by phone between May 2 and May 6, with a sampling error of no more than plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

soundoff(36 Responses)

gg

why do they bother waiting around here to get into heaven–heavens door is open 24/7 some times its better to leave before the traffic gets bad

May 10, 2012 12:44 pm at 12:44 pm |

Ol' Yeller

Yes, the Democrats did a little purge of their own then... not necassarily purposeful, they just did what was right. When they pushed through the Civil Rights Act the racists in the party followed through with their threat of leaving. They were welcomed with open arms by the republican'ts.

May 10, 2012 12:44 pm at 12:44 pm |

q

Based on this data, I'd postulate that evangelicals consider politics to trump their religion and the Republican claims of "war on religion" to be completely factitious.

May 10, 2012 12:46 pm at 12:46 pm |

Rudy NYC

Ol' Yeller wrote:

that is exactly what they are saying. the majority of Christians nowadays are really not very Christian. .....
-----------------
Actually, the majority of Christians nowadays behave very "Christian-like". It is a small vocal minority that have engaged themselves into our political atmosphere.

Google this " ABC vs SBC " or " American Baptists versus Southern Baptists " Those two groups used to be one, but split into two entities after an irreconcilible ideological divide.

May 10, 2012 12:53 pm at 12:53 pm |

Mgc tampa

Wow I am shocked! shocked I tell you. Evangelicals for Romney! Big surprise those who want the bible to be the constituion go for Romney. There is a good reason for separation of church and state.

May 10, 2012 12:57 pm at 12:57 pm |

DaveC

"Mitt Romney has a large lead over President Barack Obama among white evangelical voters":

Only one response to this poll: Did someone pay good money for someone to do this poll? Duhhhhhhhhhhhh! What an obvious result. The question that should have been asked is this:

"Are you voting for Mitt Romney just because you don't want to vote for Obama or because you believe in Mitt Romney and his policies (however moderate) and his religion?"

The response to that question from white evangelical voters would have been much more interesting.

May 10, 2012 01:00 pm at 1:00 pm |

Newmoon2

Meh... they (Evangelicals) can have Romney. They'll vote party line or stay home... they don't cross party lines anyways. Who cares!

May 10, 2012 01:05 pm at 1:05 pm |

MaryM

From a previous post: "Obama's gay marriage support riles religious conservatives" and "Lincoln's slave emancipation riles religious conservatives". The more things change the more they stay the same with evangelicals.

May 10, 2012 01:29 pm at 1:29 pm |

RINO Bil

Duh!

Homer Simspon could have told us that weeks ago.

Evangelicals would embrace almost anybody but a Democrat liberal, Muslim or a Jew ... and I am not certain about a Jew. Evangelicals are the most narrow-minded people I have every dealt with.

But I guess they can be that way if "God" is on their side.

May 10, 2012 01:30 pm at 1:30 pm |

Anonymous

The Evangelicals preached that mormonism is a false religion, even using the bible to defend their beliefs.... But the bible is put aside and they are voting for a Mormon..... There goes the Christian beliefs... What Would Jesus Do

May 10, 2012 01:32 pm at 1:32 pm |

curious

Sunday is the most segregated day of the week in America. Go to any church and I bet you everyone is of the same race. Talk about an oxymoron.